Senior Systems Engineer
Salary

The median total income of Senior Systems Engineers is around $103K, and for the average worker in this area, a good chunk of that (roughly a third, in fact) comes from commissions. In the world of Senior Systems Engineers, overall cash allowance can occasionally include more than $15K from bonuses and, in some exceptional cases, $14K from profit sharing, causing incomes to vary widely between $78K and $144K. The specific employer is the main element affecting pay for this group — geography and tenure are driving factors as well. The vast majority (89 percent) of Senior Systems Engineers who answered the questionnaire are male. Most Senior Systems Engineers like their work and job satisfaction is high. Nearly all have medical and dental plans, and a strong majority have vision insurance. The information for this snapshot was generated by responses to the PayScale salary survey.

XTotal Pay combines base annual salary or hourly wage, bonuses, profit sharing, tips, commissions, overtime pay and other forms of cash earnings, as applicable for this job. It does not include equity (stock) compensation, cash value of retirement benefits, or the value of other non-cash benefits (e.g. healthcare).

XTotal Pay combines base annual salary or hourly wage, bonuses, profit sharing, tips, commissions, overtime pay and other forms of cash earnings, as applicable for this job. It does not include equity (stock) compensation, cash value of retirement benefits, or the value of other non-cash benefits (e.g. healthcare).

XTotal Pay combines base annual salary or hourly wage, bonuses, profit sharing, tips, commissions, overtime pay and other forms of cash earnings, as applicable for this job. It does not include equity (stock) compensation, cash value of retirement benefits, or the value of other non-cash benefits (e.g. healthcare).

XTotal Pay combines base annual salary or hourly wage, bonuses, profit sharing, tips, commissions, overtime pay and other forms of cash earnings, as applicable for this job. It does not include equity (stock) compensation, cash value of retirement benefits, or the value of other non-cash benefits (e.g. healthcare).

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$77,820 - $144,346

Country: United States

Currency: USD

Updated: 20 Sep 2017

Individuals Reporting: 182

Job Description for Senior Systems Engineer

The senior systems engineer tends to involve more design and build-out work than an standard systems administrator position. While both jobs contain responsibilities for day-to-day administration and upkeep of servers and storage, a senior systems engineer will also have been the one who original designed the solution; this can range anywhere from choosing a server platform to details related to processors, RAM and network cards.

In addition to general Windows/Linux servers, a senior systems engineer will generally have some type of specialty. Typical specialties include storage (with additional focus on particular vendors, with Netapp, Hitachi and EMC being the most common), virtualization (Vmware Vsphere first, Hyper-V second), or specific large-scale platforms. These large platform specialties, such as SAP or SaaS, tends to leave the job choices a bit more limited (whereas storage and virtualization tend to be more universal), but it also often leads to the more secure and higher-paying jobs.

The best senior systems engineers tend to have at least touched on multiple facets of the systems world. Ideally, a senior systems engineer in a Windows shop will have at least passing experience with Active Directory, Exchange, storage, virtualization, basic networking (ideally Cisco), at least one antivirus solution, and at least one enterprise backup solution. In a Linux or Unix Environment, the list is essentially the same, just replacing Active Directory with Samba/EDir and Exchange with something like Zimbra. Because of the fact that a senior systems engineer is designing platforms, instead of just maintaining them in an ongoing fashion, the broad experience ensures that they have the knowledge needed to come up with designs for new projects and platforms. (Copyright 2017 PayScale.com)

Senior Systems Engineer Tasks

Oversee the planning, design and implementation of system engineering projects.

May be responsible for designing a data contingency plan or data disaster recovery plan.

Install, configure and upgrade and enhancements to software/hardware/network systems.

Common Career Paths for Senior Systems Engineer

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At the upper end, Senior Systems Engineers who move into a Principal Systems Engineer role can end up with a hefty increase in pay. The average income for Principal Systems Engineers is a much higher $124K per year. The most common career progression for Senior Systems Engineers leads to becoming an Information Technology Manager, where pay is typically $78K. However, many Senior Systems Engineers also opt to become Information Technology Architects, a position that pays $110K on average.

Senior Systems Engineer Job Listings

Popular Employer Salaries for Senior Systems Engineer

Well-known firms with a reputation for hiring numerous Senior Systems Engineers include Lockheed Martin Corp, Raytheon Co., Northrop Grumman Corporation, Rockwell Collins, Inc., and Raytheon Missile Systems. For Senior Systems Engineers, comfortable salaries can be found at The Boeing Company; in fact, average earnings are around $133K, the highest in the area, though the difference in the company's lowest and highest employee paychecks ($94K versus $173K) is great. Also paying near the top of the field are Northrop Grumman Corporation at $119K, General Dynamics C4 Systems at $113K, and Rockwell Collins, Inc., where Senior Systems Engineers annually earn $104K.

Motorola, Inc. offers the lowest pay in the field with a median salary of just $84K. There's also little variation in pay at the company, with pay ranging from $73K to $101K. BAE Systems Inc., Dell, Inc., and Lockheed Martin Corp also rank near the bottom for pay, handing out $88K, $99K, and $99K-paychecks on average.

Popular Skills for Senior Systems Engineer

This chart shows the most popular skills for this job and what effect each skill has on pay.

Senior Systems Engineers seem to require a rather large skill set. Most notably, skills in UNIX, C++ Programming Language, Requirements Analysis, and Project Management are correlated to pay that is above average, with boosts between 4 percent and 5 percent. Skills that pay less than market rate include Microsoft Active Directory, Windows Operating System General Use, and Storage Area Networking. Most people experienced in Engineering Design also know Requirements Analysis.

Pay by Experience Level for Senior Systems Engineer

Pay by Experience for a Senior Systems Engineer has a positive trend. An entry-level Senior Systems Engineer with less than 5 years of experience can expect to earn an average total compensation of $90,000 based on 639 salaries provided by anonymous users. Average total compensation includes tips, bonus, and overtime pay. A Senior Systems Engineer with mid-career experience which includes employees with 5 to 10 years of experience can expect to earn an average total compensation of $97,000 based on 1,669 salaries. An experienced Senior Systems Engineer which includes employees with 10 to 20 years of experience can expect to earn an average total compensation of $106,000 based on 2,230 salaries. A Senior Systems Engineer with late-career experience which includes employees with greater than 20 years of experience can expect to earn an average total compensation of $119,000 based on 910 salaries.

For Senior Systems Engineers, working in the bustling city of San Francisco has its advantages, including an above-average pay rate. Senior Systems Engineers can also look forward to large paychecks in cities like Washington (+18 percent), Los Angeles (+12 percent), San Diego (+9 percent), and New York (+8 percent). The lowest-paying market is Orlando, which sits 8 percent below the national average. Phoenix and Atlanta are a couple other places where companies are known to pay below the median — salaries are 7 percent lower and 6 percent lower, respectively.